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Topics: News, Politics, Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Stewart Perrie
Topics: News, Politics, Bryan Cranston, Breaking Bad
Bryan Cranston has ripped into Donald Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) slogan.
The MAGA phrase burst into the world when Trump announced his intention to run for US President.
It was a slogan that was lapped up by his followers as they wanted their country to return to greatness.
Trump sold them on the idea that America had become weak under the Democrats and needed to get back to putting their country first.
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Since then the MAGA red hat and slogan has been closely associated with Trump and the Republican party.
However, Cranston feels there's a dark underside to it.
The Breaking Bad actor spoke to CNN's Chris Wallace about how the phrase could be racist.
“The ‘Make America Great Again’ – my comment is: Do you accept that that could possibly be construed as a racist remark?” Cranston said.
“And most people, a lot of people go, ‘How could that be racist? Make America Great Again?’
"I said, ‘So just ask yourself from, from an African American experience, when was it ever great in America for the African American? When was it great?’”
Cranston is a big believer in critical race theory (CRT) being taught in schools.
CRT is a movement that seeks to understand how law, politics, and society intersects with race and how there are still systemic problems with race in America even today.
However, CRT has come under heavy criticism in recent years, especially from conservative circles.
Critics believe CRT promotes division and teaches people to see others primarily through the lens of race.
However, Cranton explained to the TV host that America needs to look back on its history and really examine what people of color experienced.
“I think it’s imperative that it’s taught,” Cranston said.
He added: "Much the same I think that Germany has looked at their history [and] involvement in [WWI and WWII] and embrace it and say, ‘This is where we went wrong. This is how it went wrong. This is why it can’t go wrong again'.”
Cranston believes that America could learn a lot about itself if it reflects the same way Germany has.
In a similar discussion with Bill Maher, they discussed how Black Americans have only really just started seeing the 'great' side of America.
The Breaking Bad actor said that's why the slogan of making America great 'again' is problematic because there hasn't been good times for large swaths of the population.
“It’s 400 k**king years that we’ve dealt with this, and our country still has not taken responsibility or accountability,” he said.